I will never forget the time Jay-Z was on Hot97 and he was asked about running Def Jam Recordings.... He was asked how it is working on both sides of the game, and he pointed out that artists fail to realize there is a relationship and the end of every turn, and even mentioned a certain artist who had been publicly bashing the label and complaining that they didn't work his project properly. Jay-Z took this artist aside and asked him a few simple questions.. like...
" Do you know the name of the person who handles your radio promotion? Do you know the name of the person who handles merchandising?" Of course the answer was no, that the artists had failed to even make an effort to build a real relationship with any of these people who had been toiling so hard to make HIS record happen.
Which leads me to this short essay....
As someone who has survived and existed on both sides of the tracks within this business of music, I can safely say, that relationships: our ability to get along with others is KEY to success! Thinking negatively, acting paranoid, creating a contentious, adversarial environment is totally counterproductive to a successful run between artist and businessman. Yet and still, how many artists are, as I always call it, open for business? Very very few, and in today's music game, it is exactly those who make it. Artists must be open for business.
Labels or agencies, are run by people, who have other people working for them. If an artist chooses to abuse or neglect the relationship between himself and these people, take a guess what can happen! Everything involving relationships has a psychology to it.. for example; we all know about successful artists buying the whole staff of a record label lunch, flowers, champagne, etc.. and for what is this done? Simply put: the result is the people tend to want to work harder for this individual! Artists, imagine this scenario: all day long, and all week long, the staff of a record label have one name on their minds and out of their mouths: YOURS! This is because all day long they are basically selling and promoting you.. making clientele a believer in YOU! This is often a very thankless vocation for those working on projects, because as we know.. how many are artists themselves just looking for an angle or a break in the biz! So here you have... an artist who then calls up with a harassing, menacing tone, or makes threats, or acts generally selfish and belligerent.. to what end? All these good, hard working people who are trying to get behind YOU as a product now feel like shit about it! That is definitely not a good look! Even a caveman can guess what happens to your project next....
Just my two cents... something to keep in mind, artists!!!
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